Matthew Stephen Ronfeldt

Matthew Stephen Ronfeldt is a Professor at the Marsal Family School of Education, University of Michigan, and a Faculty Associate at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. His research focuses on improving teaching quality in schools serving minoritized and marginalized students through evidence-based teacher preparation and professional development.

His educational background includes seven years as a middle school mathematics and science teacher in Oakland, California, followed by a PhD in teacher education from Stanford University and an IES postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford. His research interests center on teacher recruitment/retention (especially teachers of color), mentorship systems, and assessment of teacher preparation programs, utilizing innovative mixed-methods approaches spanning causal inference, survey design, and case studies.

Ronfeldt has received three prestigious article awards: the Palmer I. Johnson Memorial Award (2019) and dual AACTE Outstanding JTE Article Awards (2016, 2022). Current projects include increasing teacher diversity in Tennessee (IES), developing belonging-centered math instruction (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), and the Mentoring Mentors Matters Project for mathematics mentor teachers (NSF), building on his decade-long partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education.

He actively contributes to educational policy through grant-funded research and teaches foundational courses including Teaching Secondary School Mathematics (EDUC 413), The Practice of Teaching (EDUC 776), and Foundations of Teaching and Learning (EDUC 791), with intellectual clusters in Educational Leadership and Teaching/Teacher Education.